In Strange Places
by bram4eva
Summary: Sam is recently divorced. Brittany is a lawyer who is slowly recovering from her own destroyed marriage. She worked in the same firm as Sam's lawyer. When the two meet by accident, can true love spring from the ruins of lost love?
1. Divorce

Sam threw the pen down after signing his name for the last time.

"There! We are no longer married, I never want to see you or your bastard child again." he said, turning away from his now ex-wife.

"Thank god, because I never want to see you either! How dare you call Jenny a bastard. She's not your daughter and never will be. I hope you rot in hell!" Quinn retorted and stormed off, dragging a wide eyed blonde girl behind her.

"Mr. Evans, that will be all thank-you. I hope you enjoy the rest of your day." The lawyer said, packing up the papers and following Quinn out.

Sam and Quinn had been married for five years, having married three weeks after graduating high school. Quinn's daughter, Isabella, had been four years old and even though she was not biologically Sam's daughter, Sam had thought of her as his. Over the past year, though, Quinn and Sam had been arguing a lot and had eventually decided to get a divorce. The process had been long and their arguments had gotten worse throughout the time.

Sam left the court and headed to his car. He needed coffee. He drove to his favourite cafe and sat in the car for a moment, thinking over everything that had happened.

* * *

Sighing, Brittany packed up her desk for the day. It had been another long day, her most recent case being another divorce. The wife had found the husband cheating on her and was now wanting all sorts of things from him.

"Hey, Marley, can you file these for me, I really need to get out of here as soon as possible." Brittany asked her assistant who was sitting at her desk just outside the door.

"Sure. I hope we never see those two again. She was such a drama queen and he just let her walk all over him!" she exclaimed, taking the papers Brittany was holding out.

"Yeah. I can't believe how many guys do that." Brittany laughed.

"At least you didn't walk all over Finn when you divorced him." Marley joked and immediately clapped her hand over her mouth.

"Oh, god. I'm so sorry. I completely forgot." she said all in a rush. Brittany smiled sadly.

"That's okay. I'm over him now. I'm just grateful I don't have anything to do with the abusive asshole anymore. Thanks to you and Santana, I managed to not end up like one of his previous girlfriends."

"Yeah. Oh well, have a good evening. I'll see you tomorrow." Marley disappeared to file away the papers. Brittany finished packing up and left her office, locking the door behind her.

She was twenty-three and had been married to a guy she met at a function for six months. She had thought it was a love-at-first-sight thing with him and so had rushed into the marriage. Her two friends, Marley and Santana had seen him with another girl one day and had decided to follow him around a bit. They had then discovered that he had a history of violence and had been reported for bashing and raping past wives or girlfriends. They had told Brittany and Brittany had quickly divorced him, fear for her safety high.

She drove to her favourite cafe, just down the road from the law firm and went in deciding to relax there for a little while.


	2. Chance Meeting

As Sam entered the café, he noticed that a pretty blonde woman was sitting at his usual table. He shook his head and went to order his coffee. Then he marched up to the blonde, not in the mood to have someone at his table and was about to tell her to get lost when he saw her face. It was so beautiful.

"Can I help you?" Brittany snapped. She was tired and not in the mood for people staring at her.

"I...er, I...Can I sit there?" Sam asked, dumbly, pointing at the seat opposite her.

"Sure. Whatever." she sighed. Sam sat down and shyly sipped at his coffee.

"So...what's your name?" he asked. She rolled her eyes.

"Brittany. You?"

"Sam. So, what brings you here today?" Sam internally kicked himself for asking that. Brittany could see that he was embarrassed about his question and smiled.

"Oh, you know, just a rough day at the office. The usual. What about you?" She was actually enjoying talking to this man. He seemed really nice.

"I...er, just divorced my wife. I felt like I needed a pick-me-up." he confessed.

"Oh. I'm sorry, I didn't know."

"No, it's okay. I need to talk about it. Otherwise, I'll keep it all locked up and end up doing something stupid."

"Oh. Well, if it makes you feel any better, I just divorced my husband too. I found out he was abusive and he was cheating on me."

"How could anyone cheat on you? If you were my wife, I would never look at another woman." he told her, going red when he realised what he was saying. She laughed.

"That's very kind of you. It was kinda my fault though, I'd only known him for a month before we got married. I thought it had been love at first sight."

"Yeah, that's what I thought about my wife. We met in Senior year of high school and got married straight out. I guess it wasn't meant to be." Sam laughed sadly.

"I guess not." Brittany laughed too. They sat in silence for a while, just sipping their coffees until Sam finally broke the silence.

"Could...Could I get your number? Maybe we can meet up another time?" he asked, not wanting to look her in the eyes.

"Of course. I'll put it in your phone for you." Sam handed her his phone and she quickly entered her number and passed it back to him.

"Well, I'd better get going, I'm supposed to be meeting my parents for dinner in an hour and I need to wash off the stresses of the day." she said, getting up and brushing her skirt down.

"Okay. Well, it was nice meeting you and I'll give you a call when I can." he said, offering his hand, She shook it quickly and departed. Sam sat still for a moment, watching her retreating back. Then, getting up, he smiled to himself and went out to his car. It was his first night in five years where he could do anything he wanted without Quinn checking up on him.


	3. Dinner Plans

The whole way home, Brittany couldn't stop smiling. Sam was such a nice guy. She could already see herself being at the very least great friends with him for years to come. When she got home, she realised she only had a few minutes to shower and change before she had to head out to her parent's house. Quickly running inside, she grabbed the first outfit she saw and jumped in the shower. Once there, she relaxed a little, letting the day wash off her. She stayed in the shower for about ten minutes and then got out, drying herself as fast as she could and getting dressed. She quickly tied her hair up into a braid and ran back out to her car.

"You took your time, Brittany." her mother, Charice, chastised when Brittany knocked on the door, five minutes later than she was supposed to.

"Five minutes, mum. You'll survive." Brittany retorted, squeezing past and hanging her coat on the hook inside the door. Her parent's mansion, the place Brittany had grown up in, now felt confining to Brittany who felt like she now lived in the whole world rather than just the expansive mansion on the hill. Many times when she was younger, Brittany would escape to the farthest corner of the grounds where there was a hole in the wall just big enough to crawl through and would spend hours playing in the sprawling fields behind. When Brittany had moved out, although her apartment was much smaller than the mansion, only having one bedroom, Brittany always felt it was bigger.

"Don't give me that attitude, young lady. You are still my daughter and when you are under this roof, you will obey our rules." Charice said, literally sticking her nose in the air and disappeared into the living room. Brittany sighed and shook her head. One of the reasons she had moved out so young was her mother's controlling nature. And when Brittany came to the mansion for dinner, she would always go back to that snobbish state. She followed her mother to find her father, Jonathon sitting on the couch, watching a football game as usual.

"Hi dad." Brittany said, trying to pry Jonathon's attention away from the game. She was always amazed at how her parents stayed together, they were so different from each other.

"Hi." Brittany sighed and sat down, knowing that was all she was going to get out of him until the game and the post-game commentaries had finished.

"So, what's new in your life, dear?" Charice asked, handing her a glass of champagne.

"Like you really care. I've just sorted another divorce case, worst one I've seen yet. And I met a guy in a local café this afternoon." Brittany said.

"Another guy! Brittany, you know what happened last time you 'hooked up' with a random guy on the spur of the moment." Charice cried, almost spilling her champagne.

"Mum, nothing's happened. I was just talking to him and I gave him my number in case he wanted to call. I'm not rushing into anything the way I did with Finn. I learnt my lesson with him." Brittany promised. The rest of the evening consisted of Charice, and eventually Jonathon, quizzing her about every little thing that was going on in her life. By the time Brittany left, she felt physically exhausted.

* * *

Sam decided to call Artie and Mike to see what they were up to and if they wanted to go out. Both were girlfriend free and so the three decided to meet up at the local pub for a few drinks. Sam got there as soon as he could and saw Mike already sitting at the bar with a beer in his hands, chatting to a girl next to him.

"Hey Mike. What's up?" Sam sat next to him and pried his friend's attention away from the pretty blonde, knowing Tina would throw a fit if she heard that Mike was flirting with another girl.

"Hey Sam. So, how'd the divorce go?"

"Great. No longer married to her. Apparently I'm supposed to go and rot in hell." he told Mike, laughing. Artie wheeled in just then and joined the conversation.

"Nice. Well, it's kinda hot in here so I guess this could count." he said, laughing. The three men ordered a round of beer and sat around, chatting and laughing, mostly telling jokes at Quinn's expense. Sam didn't care though. He was rid of her forever and he'd met a nice blonde girl who seemed genuinely happy to talk to him.


	4. Revelations

Brittany had just woken up the next morning when her phone began to ring. She rubbed her eyes and looked at the clock on her bedside table which showed glowing numbers saying 9.30.

"Hello?" she asked, her barely awake state clear in her voice.

"Hi, Brittany. It's Sam, from the café yesterday. I'm sorry if I woke you I can call back later." Sam was apologetic and Brittany rushed to stop him from hanging up.

"No, no it's okay. I was awake, I'm just tired that's all. How are you?"

"Not bad. Nursing a slight hangover but otherwise alright." Brittany laughed.

"Go out to celebrate the divorce last night?" she asked. Sam grimaced on his end of the phone.

"Yeah. It's been ages since I caught up with my buddies so I thought it would be a good excuse." He sheepishly admitted.

"Don't worry, I did the same thing when I divorced Finn, the abusive bastard." she told him. He gasped.

"You don't mean Finn Hudson, do you?" he asked

"Yeah. Do you know him?" Brittany asked, surprised.

"I, uh, went to high school with him. Not the sharpest tool in the shed. His girlfriend cheated on him in sophomore year and got knocked up. She told Finn it was his even though they'd never actually done the deed. Big drama after he found out she was lying." Sam laughed at the memory of Tina telling him one night just after he arrived at McKinley.

"Wow. What'd she tell him?"

"Told him that his early release in the hot tub got her knocked up. After the baby was born, she was going to put it up for adoption but she took one look at it and fell in love. She kept it and I eventually thought of little Isabella as my daughter once I started dating Quinn. Then Finn started dating a girl named Rachel who eventually cheated on him with Puck who was the one that got Quinn knocked up" he explained.

"So Finn went out with your ex-wife, who cheated on him and got knocked up by Puck. When he broke up with Quinn, he started dating Rachel who then cheated on him with Puck and you dated Quinn. Wow, looks like your high school life was full of drama and triangles." she said.

"Yeah, and trust me, that was only the icing on the cake. There was more love triangle shit going on underneath all that as well." he laughed.

"I'm so glad I went to The Academy."

"Wow, you went there? How are you so nice? Every other person I've met from there is so stuck-up." he cried.

"I had friends outside of the academy who kinda kept me grounded. I got out of my parents house as soon as I could. They didn't like it but couldn't afford to look bad in front of their friends so they set me up with my own apartment and paid for me to go to law school."

"Wow, looks like we both lead a hell of a life. Well, I've got to be heading into work soon, so do you want to meet up for dinner tonight?" Sam changed the topic

"Oh, uh, yeah sure. Um, what time?" Brittany was a bit taken aback by the sudden change in topic.

"How about eight? I'll pick you up?"

"Great , I'll probably be at work till 7.30 but I can get changed there and you can pick me up from there. I work at the law office near the café we were at yesterday." she told him, checking her clock again. 10am. She had to be at work in an hour.

"Okay. I'll see you tonight then. Bye"

"Bye, Sam." Brittany threw her phone onto the bedside table and lay back down. Five more minutes of shut-eye and she'd get up for work


End file.
